Courtesy of Judith Gregg Librarian Catherine Arbogast heads out with a personalized book delivery from the Los Altos main library.

Love of learning and curiosity about the world sometimes grow only more urgent as a person spends more and more time at home, limited by age, health condition, or both. Librarians head out from the Los Altos main l...

Already known as an innovator in the tech field, Google Inc. is now moving in on the art world.

The Mountain View-based company July 11 launched the “Paint the Town” contest, a “moving art experiment” that invites California residents over the age of 13 to submit physical or digital artwork that would decorate the door...

Traci Newell/Town Crier The six-week, tuition-free Stretch to Kindergarten program, hosted at Bullis Charter School, serves children who have not attended preschool. A teacher leads children in singing about the parts of a butterfly, above.

courtesy of Rishi Bommannan Rishi Bommannan cycled from Bates College in Maine to his home in Los Altos Hills, taking several selfies along the way. He also raised nearly $13,000 for the Livestrong Foundation, which supports cancer patients.

The Town Crier’s recent article on coyotes venturing down from the foothills in search of sustenance referenced the organization Project Coyote (“Recent coyote attacks keep residents on edge,” July 1). Do not waste your time contac...

Photos by Alicia Castro/Town Crier Local residents participate in an exercise class at the Grant Park Senior Center, above. Betsy Reeves, below left with Gail Enenstein, lobbied for senior programming in south Los Altos.

Grace Wilson Franks, our beloved mother and grandmother, left us peacefully on July 16, 2015 just a few weeks short of her 92nd birthday. She was born to Ross and Florence (Cruzan) Wilson in rural Tulare, California on Septem...

Most of us have a place inside our hearts and minds that occasionally causes us trouble. For some, it is sadness, depression or despair. For others, it may be fear, anger, resentment or myriad other emotional “dark places” that at times seem to hij...

The Los Altos City Council took the following actions at its Nov. 12 meeting.

No fee change for EV charging stations

The council last week resisted changing the hourly charging fee for the city’s electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, despite numbers that show a cost-recovery shortfall for the program.

Ultimately, the council opted to re-examine the fee structure at the stations’ one-year mark in June after councilmembers appeared initially split.

According to a city staff report, the three EV stations – installed in late March in Parking Plaza 3 off San Antonio Road near the Bus Barn Theater – have cost $3,048 to operate but generated just $2,400 in revenue over the first six months. The $648 shortfall led some councilmembers to express support for increasing the stations’ $1 per hour charging fee.

Councilwoman Val Carpenter told her colleagues that she favored switching to a fee that allows the city to break even, adding that the stations offer an incentive for EV drivers to come to Los Altos.

“Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary for the city to subsidize this program,” she said.

Councilwoman Jan Pepper said she was “comfortable” with a fee of $2 per hour, noting that the city also paid approximately $29,000 to install the stations earlier this year. In addition, she said, EV owners are more concerned with simply finding places to charge their cars.

“I think the issue right now for people who have EVs is knowing where there’s a charging station – not what the cost is,” Pepper said.

Mayor Jarrett Fishpaw, however, countered that his “greatest fear” is that a rate increase could lead to EV owners avoiding the Los Altos stations for cheaper ones elsewhere. The three dual-heading chargers, according to the report, collectively saw 1,145 charges at an average of two hours per session in their first six months.

Councilwoman Megan Satterlee recommended that the council revisit the issue in June, with additional usage data at their disposal before a final fee decision is rendered.

“I don’t think we should be subsidizing this,” she said, “but I don’t think we should be picking up pennies either.”

County DA commends Los Altos Police

A council presentation last week by the Santa Clara County district attorney included praise for the Los Altos Police Department in addition to new details about a recent burglary case.

District Attorney Jeffrey Rosen told the council that his agency – which prosecutes nearly 30,000 cases per year – is pleased to see the lengths that Los Altos Police Department officers and detectives go to solve cases.

“They are in size a small agency, but they make very big arrests,” said Rosen, a Los Altos resident. “Woe to the criminal that has the misfortune of entering into their jurisdiction.”

Rosen pointed to the recent arrests of two burglars – San Francisco residents Dennis Windham and Andre Marcell Clark – accused of breaking into a Los Altos home. As previously reported by the Town Crier, the duo was charged with burglarizing a Cristo Rey Place home in mid-October. That incident occurred days before Windham and Clark were arrested for another burglary after a car chase by Morgan Hill and San Jose police.

Rosen added that the Los Altos burglary charges came after an iPad stolen from the residence started pinging its location because it contained a locator app. That led detectives Mark Thompson and Scott McCrossin to drive up to Oakland, where they located the device at a pawnshop and obtained surveillance tape of the suspects, he added.

“Not every police department’s officers would’ve driven to Oakland, found that pawn shop, then worked with the pawnshop owner to show the surveillance tapes,” Rosen said.

Rosen also noted the arrest earlier this year of Los Altos resident Thomas Andrew Cronin for a string of armed robberies, including a pair of downtown banks. He said the department’s investigative work was “so strong” that Cronin opted to plead guilty in lieu of a trial and is currently serving seven years in state prison.

Rosen also sounded a word of caution for Los Altos residents, noting that elder fraud and abuse, in addition to real estate fraud, remain “quite prevalent” throughout the county.

Former commissioner selected for new post

The council unanimously voted to appoint former Planning Commissioner Ken Lorell to a vacant seat on the Los Altos Planning and Transportation Commission.

The vote came after the council conducted eight interviews for the seat, vacant since August. The Planning Commission was disbanded when the previous city council combined it with the Traffic Commission.

Senior Commission deadline extended

The council announced that the deadline to apply for one vacancy on the Senior Commission would be extended to Monday after no one applied during the initial search.

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